Time Management

Time management....

For me, it depends on the load. I pull an open trailer. Mostly oversized, but a few legal loads (load doesnt require a state permit). With a legal load, I will run at night mostly...starting at 10pm. Why? Less traffic. Unless theres an accident or the road is closed, you can blow through every big city there is at 10pm. Saves alot of time. Once I start driving, I stay driving. Full 11. The faster I get my 11 in, the faster I get my 10 in, the faster I can get my next 11. I do EVERYTHING in my 10 hour break. Shower, crap, eat, sleep, laundry...whatever. When it's time to drive, I'm going driving. I fuel at the beginning of my day. If I have anything less than 3/4 tank of fuel and I have to put some miles down, I am going to fuel. I do not fuel in the middle of my driving time. It takes too long to get off the highway, fuel (especially with the idiots that park in fuel islands) and get back on. You blow 45 minutes to an hour and thats if theres no wait at the pumps. I dont do it. I carry groceries that I can get to and eat while driving.

With an oversized i have to run different because most places I have to run in the daytime and you have curfews til 0900 in the big metro areas. Youre on the secondary roads more. Its alot more stop and go. Lot more towns and speed traps and county mounties looking for revenue. I will still cover 650 miles in 11 hours. I will get up at 0500, eat breakfast, doublecheck the route, enter the route turn by turn on my GPS, top the fuel tanks off, fire up all the beacon lights, double check the permits of the states I will be running in(make sure your tag number and the dates are correct...otherwise, youre in trouble). The problem comes in with the oversized is parking and fueling. Youre too big to fit through most fuel islands at 12 ft wide. And where are you going to park when you have to shut down? I will figure out how far I can make it without running into any problems.

The fueling is a big problem because if your load is really big, even if you fuel up first thing in the morning, you may have to put fuel on again during the day. But the better you do your homework, the less of an obstacle fueling is.

If the only thing you do ON DUTY (even on ELOGS) is fuel (10 minutes) post trip (10 minutes) load/unload(15-30 minutes), and everything else OFF DUTY, you wont have alot of time where you are feeling wasteful and unproductive. That 10 hours goes by rather quickly. I have a flattop sleeper. The only thing I do in a truck is drive and sleep. If I am not driving or sleep, I get out of the truck. What do I need a big sleeper in a truck for? I dont have time for TV, so why should I Have a TV in the sleeper? I do the 34s either at home or a motel. I am usually around the house every other week. Only when the job is done and I am at a motel or at the house will I turn on a TV.

Some drivers sit in truckstops or at some grocery warehouse for days on end. Some times, I will have to sit and wait for a load to be ready ($$$$$). I am usually bobtail then. I will be at a motel. I will go swimming or fishing or find some live music somewheres. Thing is, you cant trash around with a load on your wagon. You have to go. And when I say go, I mean full go...not driving 2-3 hours down the road and pulling over to trash around. If your load isnt scheduled for delivery til Friday and you can be in the area on Wednesday, get there Wednesday. Even if bad weather strikes, you will still be able to make it in on time.

 

Depends some on where you where you work, type of freight you haul, etc. But for me, hauling reefer for a medium-sized company, the most important thing most of the time is trying to get my 10 hour break in at the shipper or receiver.

You can lose anywhere from 1-4 hrs, or more, staying at a truck stop then having to drive to the receiver. Where if you sleep at the receiver, your clock doesn't start until you leave. Then you have your full 14 to pick up your next load and get on the down road with it. This is with elogs of course. Wiith paper, you can just arrange it as needed.

 

This assumes, of course, that the shipper/receiver has restroom facilities available for truckers who are taking their 10 there. Some don't, so it pays to check ahead if you haven't been there before. (Yes, there's the tire watering thing but some places really frown on that, and it doesn't solve the other problem.)

 

I second what double yellow said, and I'll add my own input. Running on used hours can be stressing sometimes. You will be waiting until midnight very often to drive...then try night driving for a week straight, and figuring how to accept the next preplan load based on those hours. They pushed the whole "try to do 8 hours or less per day, so you don't have to reset" idea back in school. Honestly, I tried doing that for a while, but the scheduling demands will interfere with how you want to spread out that 70 hour clock. We are coming into the busy time for freight, so here's my advice: burn that clock and push hard! You will stack the miles up, have a reset break, and a full 70 to kick butt again.